Page 124 - 2018 Annual Report Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan

Collective Experiences The Overall Landscape Unit 5: Major Events in 2018 1. A Look Back at Key Events in 2018 (1) Measures taken in response to the African swine fever epidemic in mainland China On August 3, 2018, the first news about an African swine fever (ASF) outbreak came out of the Shenyang region in Liaoning Province of mainland China. Just four months later, as of December 31, 103 outbreaks had occurred in 23 provinces (areas, municipalities), indicating that the disease was spreading very quickly there. Taiwan is only separated from mainland China by a narrow strait, so there was high risk of the disease spreading to Taiwan. For this reason we took strict precautionary measures. To prevent the introduction of this disease into Taiwan, the COA, based on the spirit of “not taking the enemy lightly” and “deploying troops in advance,” launched a variety of disease prevention and control measures on August 6, 2018. These included strengthening border controls, strengthening the threat awareness of domestic pig farm operators, strengthening biosecurity at livestock farms, and ensuring the cooking of kitchen waste at farms where pigs are fed food scraps. On August 9, at the 3612th meeting of the Executive Yuan (i.e. Cabinet), Premier Lai Ching-te asked all ministries to fully coordinate efforts, strengthen border controls, and go all-out to prevent the transmission of ASF from mainland China. On August 22, given that ASF was turning into an epidemic in mainland China, President Tsai Ing-wen specially expressed her concern about Taiwan’s disease-prevention situation and response measures, and instructed National Security Council Secretary-General David Lee to convene a meeting of relevant ministries to study preventive measures and to make a concerted effort to block the transmission of the disease into Taiwan. 122